Assessment of Physico-Chemical Properties of Soils Around Quarry Sites of Different Agricultural zones of Ebonyi State, Nigeria

Quarrying is an immemorial activity that physically disturbs soil and impacts soil quality chemically. This study assessed the physico-chemical properties of soils around quarry sites of various agricultural zones of Ebonyi state, southeastern Nigeria. Using transect method, triplicate auger soil samples (0-10 and 10- 20cm depth) were collected from four equal distances (0, 50, 100 and 150m) away from two mining sites in each of Ebonyi central (Nigercem and CNCC) and Ebonyi north agricultural zone (CDC and Ngbo). A total of ninety six (96) samples were used for the study and standard laboratory techniques employed in soil physicochemical determination. Data were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA), correlation and Principal component analysis. From the results, significantly (p<0.05) higher concentrations of silt(18.15- 31.90%), clay(7.85-10.86%), silt clay ratio (SCR) (2.85-4.29) and bulk density(1.43-1.75gcm-3)were in Ebonyi central while higher sand(54.15-72.00%), moisture content (MC) (15.11-23.17%) and total porosity(TP) (31.54-44.19%) were in Ebonyi north agricultural zone.Apart from SCR,MC, and BD, physical properties also varied significantly along the sampling distances with most of them including clay(10.35%), SCR(4.13) and MC(20.62%)occurring in 100m. Across the soil depths, significant variation was only found in sand, BD and TP with higher values of all the physical properties except BD obtained in 0-10cm. All the soil chemical properties varied significantly except pH and %BS. Higher contents of pH(5.86- 5.73), AvP(2.95-2.99 mgkg-1), Ca(26.65-46.32), Mg(7.73-18.37), K(5.95-8.46), Na(7.03-12.84), TEA(0.23-0.31), ECEC(47.59-86.29) and %BS(99.47-99.63) were in Ebonyi north while OC(0.43-0.86%) and TN(0.10-0.13%) were in Ebonyi central. Along the distances, chemical properties varied significantly apart from pH, Ca, Mg and %BS. Higher content of most of them including TN(0.14), AvP(3.35), K(9.75), Na(13.55), ECEC(72.57) and %BS(99.67) were in 150m. Within the soil depths, significant variation was only found in the concentrations of OC and TN with greater contents of all of them except pH, Mg and %BS obtained in 0-10cm. Physico-chemical properties especially MC,BD and pH exhibited obvious significant associations.PCA demonstrated that except SCR and pH, all the physico-chemcial parameters studied was significantly increased with intensity of quarry in the studied areas.